The US Justice Department has indicted five Pakistani men, yet again, who were part of a Rawalpindi based front company, for activities of smuggling of American technology for Pakistani nuclear and missile programmes.
The five men: Muhammad Kamran (aged 41) of Pakistan, Muhammad Ahsan Wali (48) and Haji Wali Muhammad Sheikh (82) from Mississauga in Canada, Ashraf Khan Muhammed of Hong Kong and Ahmed Waheed (52) of Ilford in Essex, United Kingdom have been charged under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Export Control Reform Act.
They have been accused of operating a chain of front companies which acquired US technology and ultimately concealed the actual destination of these technologies that assisted in building Pakistan’s nuclear and drone programmes. The ultimate destination of these technologies was found to be Pakistan’s Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and the Advanced Engineering Research Organization (AERO).
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These two organizations are on the US Department of Commerce’s Entity List. Firms who trade with organizations on the Entity list have to acquire an export licence before trading operations can commence. Acquisition of this licence involves a close scrutiny of the firm’s operations and it is considered to be a cumbersome bureaucratic process.
Firms which pose a threat to the national security and foreign policy interests of the US are added to this entity list.
PAEC was added to the Entity list in 1998 and AERC in 2014. The US Justice Department also clarified that none of these five men were in the US.
This is also considered to be a threat to the stability of India, as the nefarious designs of the Pakistani deep state against India is well known.
During the last decade, Pakistani metallurgist AQ Khan was caught for his indictment in building Pakistan’s illegitimate nuclear program, whose parts and technology were stolen from a Netherlands based company and the Chinese helped them post that. He was eventually pardoned by Pakistan, in an absolute mockery of international law. This nuclear technology was then exported to North Korea, Iran and Libya amongst others.